A nurse in the emergency room I frequently visit in the wee hours of the morning had a great sardonic line last week. He told me, “The ER — fighting Darwinism and natural selection every day.” Looking back on most of the personal ER visits I have had over the years, they have been a result of clumsiness, buffoonery, inattention or prior overconfidence in my abilities.

So I guess he was right. The ER staff puts us back together, when the act of being human injures us in some way. I sure hope the ER staff gets a chance to drink a coffee and chat with their peers this Fourth of July weekend, unfortunately it is usually busy for them.

In recent years fireworks were de-regulated in order for people of the Great Lakes State to fully delight in the joy, beauty and drama of fireworks—and—more importantly the state could generate a little more revenue. This deregulation had some unforeseen consequences—which I would argue responsible legislators should have foreseen—including making fireworks enforcement rather complicated and virtually unenforceable for police officers.

The law allowed people to legally possess larger, louder and higher flying fireworks and allowed citizens to practice their pyrotechnical artistry the day before, the day of and the day after national holidays.

Ohhh…ahhh…gee, that was swell until some geniuses decided the lovely and often loud displays should last as long as the party. If the party rocked into the wee hours of the night or early hours of the morning so be it—we are talking about holidays and celebration here.

So for several years, the cops could not do very much unless the fireworks landed in other people’s yards and then only when they could prove who sparked the fuse and launched the noisemaking or beautiful light emitting expression of joy and celebration into the complainant’s lawn or onto their roof.

Fireworks complaint calls, when a citizen was insistent, were a losing proposition for officers who could not calm the complainant and had their hands legally tied by a law that put revenue and celebration above the rights of those who wanted some peace and quiet during the night.

So the laws were changed so that local governments could regulate the hours of fireworks. In larger urban areas they could ban fireworks between 12 a.m. and 8 a.m. except on New Year's Eve when revelers could rock the party with pyrotechnics until 1 a.m. In suburban or rural areas those local governments could only ban national celebratory fireworks from 1 a.m. to 8 a.m., which leads me to believe the state legislators had some secret insight that the more rural folk can party longer, need less sleep or complained less to lawmakers about the noise.

Ann Arbor enacted a law prohibiting fireworks from midnight until 8 a.m. and 1 a.m. until 8 a.m. on New Year's Eve/Day. Not all local municipalities have. So depending on where you live the cops may or may not be able to do much to end the fusillades, salvos and intermittent lone pops, bangs, booms and flashes associated with national holidays and the days surrounding them.

I personally love to watch fireworks displayed by professionals who know what they are doing. I especially like to watch them from the deck of a boat, over a large body of water. However many are not fond of loud bombastic reveling. Those citizen’s rights should be protected and those who light off fireworks should be considerate and understand that to some loud fireworks disturbs, disrupts and annoys other people’s lives.

Please consider for a moment the returning combat veterans who have been used to explosions causing death and disfigurement to their comrades. Those brave souls who have defended our freedom and rights—such as the right to assemble and celebrate as we choose in the relative safety and security of this great nation—deserve some consideration. Loud bangs and deep booms are not as much fun for those who have witnessed combat’s tragic aftermath of “rocket’s red glare, the bombs bursting in air” or on the ground and IEDs exploding under vehicles.

My dad, the tough old World War II vet, who got pestered into attending at least one municipal fireworks display a year all the time I was growing up, admitted to me a few years ago that he cringed when there were unexpected booms during some fireworks displays.

The same man who endured countless mosquito bites, burns on his hand when my cousins handed him the wrong end of sparklers and allowed us to throw cherry bombs off the back of the boat, to simulate small depth charges, was not really having fun at the fireworks displays? I felt terrible.

He told me not to get it wrong, it beat laying low behind a hedgerow in a foxhole listening to German artillery shells whistling overhead, but fireworks still bugged him sometimes. It is all a matter of perspective, but fireworks are not fun for everyone.

While lighting off your fireworks, please also remember the working stiff who does not have weekends—even holidays—off.

Remember parents with babies they just got to sleep.

Remember neighbors who have animals, some of which are terrified by fireworks.

Think about your neighbors. Light your fireworks on the side of the house that the neighbors at the party lives near—not Grandma Smedley’s side of the house since she goes to bed early and the booms terrify her cats.

Light your fireworks all in one session. For those of us, who enjoy fireworks, don’t we all wait for the “Grand Finale” to really oooh and ahhhh anyway? Lighting firecrackers one at a time at varying intervals all through the night is annoying, potentially illegal and just plain inconsiderate to your neighbors.

Remember the legalities as well. Those under 18 can not legally possess fireworks that go bang. It is also illegal for anyone to discharge fireworks while intoxicated.

Have fun with your fireworks, but be careful. Use your head and be considerate of others.

Do not become a potential Darwin Award winner whose last words were, “Hold my beer and watch this!” Rest assured however that if you are that person, the professionals in the ER stand ready to try to save your life and defeat natural selection.

Lock it up, don’t leave it unattended, be aware and watch out for your neighbors.

Rich Kinsey is a retired Ann Arbor police detective sergeant who now writes his "Semper Cop" column about crime and safety for The Ann Arbor News.